Critics of President Obama have called for his impeachment and for lawsuits challenging his executive actions, but most voters nix both ideas. Better, they say, to elect an opposition Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 32% of Likely U.S. Voters think President Obama should be impeached and removed from office. Nearly twice as many (58%) disagree and oppose his impeachment. Ten percent (10%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters believe it would be bad for the United States if some members of Congress seek to impeach Obama, and even more (56%) think it would be bad for the Republican Party if an impeachment effort is made.

Twenty-six percent (26%) say it would be good for the country if some in Congress try to impeach the president, while 13% say it would have no impact. Similarly, 24% feel it would be good for the GOP, but 12% think it would have no impact.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters say electing an opposition Congress is the better way for opponents to halt or change the president’s policies. Just 15% think impeachment is the better way for opponents to go, and even fewer (12%) favor lawsuits challenging the president’s actions like the ones House Speaker John Boehner is now championing.

But 61% still agree that people who oppose the president’s policies do so primarily because they believe the policies are bad, not because of racism. However, 28% now believe that opposition is due to racism, up from 18% in October 2011 and 24% in November of last year. Eleven percent (11%) remain undecided.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-12, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Republicans think the president should be impeached and removed from office. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Democrats and 52% of voters not affiliated with either major party disagree.

One-in-three Republicans (32%), however, believe it would be bad for their party if some members of Congress seek to impeach Obama, a view shared by 77% of Democrats and 55% of unaffiliated voters.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of GOP voters agree with 53% of Democrats and 60% of unaffiliateds that electing an opposition Congress is the better way to halt or change the president’s policies.

Voters under 40 believe more strongly than their elders that a move to impeach the president would be bad for the country and bad for Republicans.

Seventy percent (70%) of black voters think people who oppose Obama’s policies are chiefly motived by racism. Seventy-one percent (71%) of white voters and other minority voters by a 50% to 42% margin think instead that the opponents genuinely believe the president’s policies are bad.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-12, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection,
publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events
in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence,
we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions,
sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics
provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day.
If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a
daily update newsletter and various media outlets
across the country.